Dibya Gurung, Core Associate for WOCAN, discussed the contribution and challenges of women participation in community forestry in Nepal, during the ‘Community Forestry Rights in Context of Federalism’ workshop organized by FECOFUN on 21 Jan in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Dibya highlighted that community forest has provided various opportunities for women such as participation in decision making processes and providing spaces to raise concerns. Another important contribution is the realization that local community is not one group but it includes various groups differentiated by gender, poverty, age and ethnicity. Dibya noted that there are two reasons for why community forestry was able to make these contributions. Firstly, institutions focused on working in the local level and secondly there were lots of investments, not just economic but also for inclusive participation. Dibya emphasizes that even with 30 years of work and significant contributions, community forestry has just scratched the surface towards gender equality. She concluded by highlighting the key messages that there are still lots of women and ethnic issues and challenges that needs to be addressed